Most of Western civilization measures the passing of the years by the coming of Jesus Christ. This would place us presently in the year 2017 AD. The Hebrew calendar is different, it measures time by what some believe to be the creation of the world. In Latin this would be called Anno Mundi, AM. Because in this dating system this new year begins on Sept. 20th, the present year would be 5778 AM. Freemasons (and certain esoteric historians) measure time by what they would refer to as the Year of Light, Anno Lucis, AL. They do this by adding 4000 years to the traditional dating system of Christian civilization. So according to this esoteric system, the present date would be 6017 AL. This dating system would place us at the beginning of the seventh millennium.

Freemasons tend to be mysterious about why they believe in what they do. I’m not a Freemason, but in this particular case, I do know what Anno Lucis means. It refers to the Year of Light, which was an event that took place approximately six thousand years ago. A belief in Anno Lucis predates the formation of Freemasonry, so you really don’t have to be a Freemason to accept this idea.

The story of Anno Lucis is this. According to an ancient legend, one day, a bright new star appeared in the sky which would usher in a new era. In some versions of this legend the star’s appearance was brief, but according to other versions, this bright star could be seen everywhere around the world, day or night, for a period of a year. This event (about 6000 years ago) marked the beginning of what we today would consider to be civilization; the elements of which would be organized government, organized religion, organized agriculture, laws, courts, soldiers and a social hierarchy. It also marks the beginning of the practice of using written languages to pass on the cultural memory of a civilization.

Speaking of history, you may have been taught in school that human civilization began around 3200 BC at the earliest. So this would place the beginning of human civilization at 5200 years ago rather than 6000 years. But perhaps you are wise enough to know that much of what you were taught in school was not really accurate.

Consider this:In Turkey archeologists have found an extensive temple compound, constructed with carved stone columns, which is referred to as Gobekli Tepe, Potbelly Hill. This dates to at least the 8th millennium BC, if not much older. This site, along with considerable other evidence, shows that human civilization could be much, much older than 3200 BC. So adding another 800 years to the 3200 BC estimate is really not so unthinkable.

I’ve personally seen a great deal of information which indicates that civilization, as we know it, began around six thousand years ago. So what does that mean?

It means that slavery began at that time. It means that the concept of private property and the act of thieving began at that time. It means that war and organized governmental violence began at that time. It means that social inequality began at that time. It means that religion as a means of mind control and of social control began at that time.

What we have actually had for the last six thousand years is organized barbarism. A state of true civilization is what existed for humanity prior to the time when, what we now call civilization, came into existence.

Prior to the Year of Light, Anno Lucis, human beings lived in a natural paradise that could be described as a Garden of Eden environment; that is, humanity once lived in a state of grace with all of nature. Humanity started off being fully spirituality developed. Our species began its slow descent into spiritual degradation only after the Year of Light. This is a true history of the world which was probably not taught to you in school.

What happened six thousand years ago is that Lucifer, the light bearer, appeared. I’ve heard three different theories for this phenomenon, each of which is credible in its own way.

(1) A nova is caused when, for a period of time, a star in the sky becomes brighter than normal. From the vantage point of Earth, this would have looked to ancient peoples as if a new star appeared in the heavens and then later disappeared, weeks or months later.

Some esoteric historians believe that a nova took place at a critical time in the development of human culture, and that its temporary appearance was taken as a sign from the sky-gods; so this acted as a catalyst for cultural change.

Their theory is that human beings were originally spiritually matriarchal. Prehistoric humans worshipped the Earth goddess and considered the pregnancy of a woman to be a mystical event. There was no written language and all information was passed on by word of mouth, which limited human knowledge. Human language was simple and people tended to be intuitive and instinctive rather than analytical. And everyone lived in nomadic tribes who existed in harmony with nature.

But, over time, people began to use pictograms which eventually turned into a written language. Spoken language became more complex over time which caused people to become less intuitive and more reasoning. Ancient peoples began to pay more attention to the stars and astrological phenomena.

At a critical time when these shifts in human development were taking place, a bright nova took place about six thousand years ago, and its appearance initiated the creation of a patriarchal cult of sky-god worshippers. With written language they were able to gather knowledge over generations and they shifted away from nomadic hunter gatherers to an agricultural people. They were able to organize a class of warriors to use military might to spread their culture. So the appearance of this nova resulted in the worship of a male sky-god, and this marked the beginning of what we now think of as early civilization.

But from another point of view this nova could be said to have marked the end of humanity’s primal civilization. It marked the event that indicated the end of matriarchal nature worship and the beginning of patriarchal sky-god worship. And this nova-inspired sky-god would have been the light bringer or light-bearer. And a Greek name for the light-bearer is Lucifer. So this Year of Light (nova appearance) would have been the beginning of the age of Lucifer.

(2) You probably know that a supernova is the bright explosion caused when a star dies. Some people believe that the Year of Light was caused by the light from a distant supernova which appeared in the sky above Earth six thousand years ago; this sign in the sky coincided with the supernatural spiritual appearance of Lucifer. Some spiritualists believe that the supernova’s explosion destroyed an inhabited planet, far away in our galaxy, and as it did so, the souls of the beings who lived there were carried by the light of the supernova until they reached our planet. Once here, they began to haunt humanity, like angry ghosts, influencing the minds of receptive human beings. So the Earth became haunted by a swarm of extraterrestrial poltergeists. Thus they altered our human civilization in an attempt to fashion it after their lost extraterrestrial society. So in this theory, Lucifer (supernova) would be a symbol for this supernatural presence of disembodied space aliens.

(3) Some extraterrestrial theorists believe, however, that the light in the sky, appearing at the Year of Light was the sun’s reflection off of a giant alien spacecraft that brought extraterrestrials to Earth, who then began to tamper with our human civilization. Their agenda for doing this is unknown: possibly to enslave us, or possibly to compel us to develop the ability to become a spacefaring people.

So the personification of Lucifer in the Year of Light could symbolize:

(1) The beginning of patriarchal sky-god worship and the advent of agricultural society.

(2) The beginning of a psychic, demonic attack on the human race by hoard of disembodied entities whose race had been killed off by a distant supernova explosion.

(3) The beginning of an alien invasion which would alter the course of human civilization.

In any case, Lucifer, came to Earth six thousand years ago and humanity has become spiritually degraded as a result. But, over the millennia, we have also become technologically advanced.

So the challenge for the seventh millennium is to retain our technical advancements while returning to a state of full spiritual awareness. The seventh millennium is when we throw off the materialistic yoke of Lucifer and regain our natural spiritual powers. The seventh millennium is the seventh day of millennial creation. It is the time when Lucifer sleeps, deep in a bottomless pit for a thousand years, while humanity regains its spiritual heritage and evolves to a new state of truly advanced civilization. Such a civilization would be one in which we would regain our harmony with nature and achieve a more loving spirituality.

WHY THE NICENE CREED MATTERS

About two thousand years ago Jesus the Christ appeared on Earth. The story of his coming and of his life is told in the four Gospels (good news) of the New Testament.

If you can think of Lucifer as a disease, Jesus Christ is the cure. But the teachings of Jesus Christ have often been misinterpreted. Lucifer was the bringer of organized religion.

Organized religion is the enemy of freedom of belief. The purpose of organized religion is to control what people believe. It gives its followers a “world view” which is a model of reality which must not questioned.

Some organized religions are highly malevolent, and they seek to have rigid control over their followers beliefs, thoughts and behavior. This oppresses their natural spirituality. However, if an organized religion is benevolent, its belief system may lead to the development of the individual’s spiritual awareness. So organized religion can be either harmful or beneficial. It all depends on how it’s organized.

Prior to the Year of Light, organized religion was unnecessary because humanity lived in a natural state of spiritual grace. Organized religion is a control mechanism for civilized society. All of the world’s religions (although some have been benevolent) have been Luciferian systems for mind control. The secular government controls people with laws, courts, police, armies, taxes and propaganda. Organized religion controls people with mind control and guilt. Organized religion, as we now know it, is often used as a mechanism for social control. So the question you have to ask is, did Jesus die on the cross so that we could have yet another Luciferian system of religious control?

If you look at the Gospel stories themselves, Jesus seems to be questioning and challenging the very idea of organized religion. He continually questions, challenges and argues with the religious authorities of his people. In the Gospels he is creating a spiritual movement, but it isn’t like anything that has existed before. And it is the leaders of an organized religion who ultimately accuse him and condemn him.

In the Gospel story, the secular, Roman, government only becomes involved with arresting Jesus at the request of the leaders of an organized religion.

For the first three hundred years of Christianity, it was an illegal religion. Both the Jewish leaders and the Roman authorities rejected the validity of the Christian spiritual movement. It was literally a crime to be a Christian. And this crime was often punished harshly with acts of public torture and execution. So there must have been something incredibly empowering about Christian spirituality during this early time period that inspired the early Christians to remain faithful in the face of such persecution.

In 313 AD the Edict of Milan legalized Christianity. In 325 AD the Council of Nicaea met to declare publicly the true nature of Christian theology. In 381 AD the Council of Constantinople attempted to expand upon and clarify the declaration made in Nicaea. So at the heart of all of this is the original Nicene Creed. To understand this Creed is to understand what empowered the early Christian movement.

The English translation of the Nicene Creed as it was written in 325 AD is as follows:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, (Creator) Maker of all things visible and invisible. And (we believe) in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, (Redeemer) begotten of the Father, the only-begotten: that is, of the essence of the Father, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made both in Heaven and on earth; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down and was incarnate and was made man; he suffered, and the third day he rose again, ascended into Heaven; from thence he shall come to judge the quick (living) and the dead. And (we believe) in the Holy Spirit (invisible, active will of God).

The authors of the Nicene Creed of 325 AD added this addendum to the basic Creed:

But those who say: ‘There was a time when he was not;’ and ‘He was not before he was made;’ and ‘He was made out of nothing,’ or ‘He is of another substance’ or ‘essence,’ or ‘The Son of God is created,’ or ‘changeable,’ or ‘alterable’ — they are condemned by the holy catholic (universal) and apostolic (founded by Christ’s apostles) Church.

This closing statement is not really a part of the Creed so much as it is a clarification which was directed at those persons attending the Council of Nicaea who were trying to oppose the basic tenet of the Creed. This basic tenet was a belief in the divinity of Jesus Christ. The council had been brought together by the Roman Emperor Constantine who did not believe in the divinity of Jesus Christ. And several Christian leaders attending the council also opposed the idea of Christ’s divinity and made arguments against it. The addendum above is the council’s rejection of those arguments.

But the basic concept of the original Creed made in the city of Nicaea in 325 AD is simple. It affirms that if you are a Christian, what you believe in is a single Godhead with three aspects: Father (Creator), Son (Redeemer) and Holy Spirit which is the invisible active energy and will of God, which is present here on Earth. This description of the Godhead would later be referred to as the Holy Trinity.

Much of the Nicene Creed is focused on making the point that Lord Jesus Christ was and is of the same essence as God the Father. This is because that at the time of the council that met in the city of Nicaea there was a conflict within the Christian community between those Christians who believed that Jesus was of a divine essence and those who believed that he was just a man, not of one essence with God. Most of the Christian leaders who met in Nicaea at that time, except for two, signed the Creed. So the Creed was approved by an overwhelming majority. And the primary point that they wished to make was that Lord Jesus Christ had been God incarnate into human form, experiencing the human condition, and suffering on the cross as an act of love to bring humanity back into grace. This gives the teachings of Christ, as presented in the four Gospels, profound spiritual authority.

The true Nicene Creed, as presented above, makes it clear that if you believe in God the Creator, Jesus Christ the Redeemer and the Holy Spirit together as one divine entity, then you are a member of the Christian spiritual movement founded by Jesus Christ. That belief alone defines what it is to be a Christian. And that belief alone is incredibly empowering. Because with that belief you come into harmony with the Holy Spirit, and this personal relationship is miraculously transformational.

Although I personally have a literal belief in the original Nicene Creed, I would point out that even if you think of this Creed as a mythological story, myths often do contain spiritual truths. The idea that God took human form, walked among us and suffered on the cross to show his love for us is a powerful idea, even if mythological. If a myth, it is the myth that puts your mind into harmony with the truth of spiritual reality.

It was not long after the establishment of this original Nicene Creed that the Church itself as an institution began to change and evolve into something different than what it had been during its first three hundred years. The Christian Church became more political once it gained legal status.

Because every early Christian church had been an illegal organization during the first three hundred years, Church leaders had not been able to establish an all powerful central leadership for the Church. Necessity had demanded a decentralized leadership for the early Christian churches. This meant that early Christianity was a movement whose only true leader was the Holy Spirit supported by the teachings of Jesus as presented in the Gospels.

Once the Church became legal, it would eventually seek to supplant the authority of the Holy Spirit with the authority of the Church leaders. Also the Church would come to interpret the Gospels in increasingly narrow-minded ways. Once legal, various Christian churches would even fight wars with other Christian churches over petty issues of theology.

By 381 AD the Church had become political enough that it sought to redefine the original Nicene Creed. Although some may refer to the 381 Creed of Constantinople as the Nicene Creed, in fact it is not. In most ways the Creed created in Constantinople is similar to the original one, modifying it with some clarifications. The Creed of 381 AD still acknowledges the trinity of Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit. But the 381 Creed sneakily adds something that wasn’t really in the original 325 Creed. At the end it states that a Christian must believe in the holy catholic and apostolic Church. So it’s not enough to believe in God, according to this rewritten version of the Creed, you have to bow down to the authority of the Church (and thereby the Church’s leaders). They also would add into their 381 Creed the belief that Church-sanctioned baptism is necessary to salvation.

These changes really go against the original, true, Nicene Creed because they transfer authority over the judgement of human souls into the hands of the Church.

What the 381 Creed stated, with a covert implication, was that unless you were accepted by the Church and baptized by the Church you could not be saved.

Therefore, what they implied with their altered 381 Creed was that the Church, rather than the ascended Christ, possessed the authority to judge who gets into Heaven in the afterlife. However, the original 325 Creed only acknowledged that the ascended Christ had the authority to judge the souls of human beings.

The 325 Creed represents the true orthodox belief of the early Christian Church. Any belief that contradicts an orthodox belief is considered heresy. The significance of these changes made in the Creed of 381, written in Constantinople, is that the 381 Creed is actually heretical. And everything that has been done by organized Christian churches following that time has been tainted by this heresy.

This heresy is still with us today because many contemporary Christian churches imply through their doctrine that the Church’s authority is equal to or greater than the authority of the Holy Spirit on Earth and Jesus Christ in Heaven. The implication made by many churches is that anyone who doesn’t accept Church doctrine will not be saved. In making such claims, the Church has come to place itself between the individual human soul and Christ.

Originally the term “catholic” Church did not refer to the Roman Catholic Church as we know it today. Originally catholic meant universal; it referred to all of the various early Christian churches which held similar beliefs. The Roman Catholic Church as it exists today is not universal at all because it holds many teachings which are not held by Orthodox or Protestant Christian churches.

The Nicene Creed also refers to the churches that are apostolic. This originally referred to the churches that were literally founded by the early apostles. This would have been the disciples of Christ and the early Christian missionaries such as Paul. Many of the actual churches founded by such early apostles have been destroyed long ago. So the term apostolic now refers to any church that is in the traditions of the early apostles; yet that claim really becomes a matter of opinion because every congregation believes that they (alone) are in the traditions of the early apostles.

In any authentic sense, the catholic and apostolic Church disappeared more than a thousand years ago. That original universal and apostle-founded Church was the Church of the early Christians who operated outside of governmental control. Once legalized, the Christian Church evolved into yet another authoritative system of social control.

There is no catholic and apostolic church anymore, but what does still exist is the original Nicene Creed and the four Gospels. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit still exists. And these three are the true authorities of the seventh millennium Christian Church: Gospels, Nicene Creed and Holy Spirit.

What makes a doorway valuable is its empty space. What makes it possible to walk from one room into another is the empty space of the doorway. A doorway is valuable because of what is not there. What makes the Nicene Creed valuable is not only what is there but also what is not there.

Contemporary Christian churches have a great deal of unnecessary baggage that you must accept if you are to be a Christian in such Churches. If you are a Roman Catholic, you must accept the Pope’s authority and all of his papal dictates, as well as a lot of traditions and complex doctrine. Some Christian churches condemn all gay people. Some Christian churches suggest that sexuality in general is evil. Some Christian churches give an exaggerated authority to the letters of the apostle Paul. Some Christian churches place many restrictions on what type of spiritual practices you can use and what types of beliefs you must hold. According to some Christian churches, if you believe in reincarnation then you’re not really a Christian. Some Christian churches are associated with certain political movements. But none of that doctrinal baggage is in the original Nicene Creed because it doesn’t demand that you believe in any church.

So this is the value of the original Nicene Creed, the one actually made in the city of Nicaea. It only demands that you believe in the Creator, Redeemer and Holy Spirit. It doesn’t demand that you believe in the Church. And in this, the Nicene Creed frees us from one thousand, seven hundred years of unnecessary and oppressive Church doctrine, much of which is based on the heretical 381 Creed.

Furthermore, when you realize that only the ascended Christ has the authority to judge the souls of human beings, it frees you from the oppressive idea that only Christians go to Heaven in the afterlife.

Consider this: The Bible says that God is love. It says that Jesus is as one with God. Its says that whoever believes in Jesus is saved. So that would mean that whoever believes in love is saved. And it is not just Christians who believe in love. So it is not just Christians who are saved.

HOW TO INTERPRET SCRIPTURE

The main reason to read the Gospels is because in doing so you become empowered. It is a story of love. It’s the story of God’s love for humanity. In a sense, it doesn’t matter if you believe the story to be a poetic, metaphorical mythology or a literal, historical description of actual events. Or you might consider that it is a combination of the two. The message of the Gospels, the Good News, is that you were created by a powerful spiritual entity who loves you. And that message is true.

Any interpretation of the Gospels based on fear or hatred is wrong. All valid interpretations of the Gospels are based on love.

In the Gospels Jesus suggests that you shouldn’t put new wine into an old wineskin. One thing this may imply is that you shouldn’t combine Old Testament moral teachings with New Testament moral teachings. To do so could be hateful and irrational. For example, in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy, it says that any man or woman guilty of adultery should be put to death. (Old Wineskin) In one of the Gospel teachings, Jesus suggests that if a man lusts in his heart for a woman not his wife, that man is guilty of adultery. (New Wine) So if we were to combine these two teachings together we could interpret scripture in this way: we could interpret it as saying that Christians should put to death anyone who has ever felt adulterous lust. Of course, to do that would be insane and evil.

And I have to make this point about what Jesus said. In his time period, women were often stoned to death for adultery; Jesus opposed this cruel practice. The reasoning behind what he said about adultery (and lusting in ones’ heart) was a response to the Old Testament teachings that encouraged the execution of adulterers. Jesus didn’t want his teachings (the new wine) put into the context of the teachings of the Old Testament (the old wineskin) because he was rejecting many of the Old Testament’s teachings. So he wasn’t actually encouraging us to feel guilty about our lustful thoughts, he was encouraging us to stop passing cruel judgement on other people because of their sexuality. Jesus rejected the harsh judgements of the Old Testament. What Jesus seemed to want, more than anything else, was for people to feel more empathy for one another.

Empathy is the key to social interactions between Christians. Biblical scriptures are best studied in groups of people who are loving and rational. Out of the discussions of such persons, appropriate interpretations are derived. When a group of people, studying scripture, are moved by the Holy Spirit, then they will interpret scripture in ways that are useful, rational and loving.

A group of people will know that they are being moved by the Holy Spirit because it tends to have these attributes:

The Holy Spirit inspires feelings of love.
The Holy Spirit dispels feelings of fear, anger or grief.
The Holy Spirit evokes mental clarity.
The Holy Spirit banishes confusion.
The Holy Spirit transcends logic without being illogical.
The Holy Spirit energizes people with its presence.
The Holy Spirit brings serenity to all it touches.

Most of Christ’s teachings in the Gospels are made up of parables, analogies and metaphors. Only a few of his teachings are literal and obvious. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” means just what it says. Jesus literally means that you should love God and love others as you love yourself. But Jesus deliberately taught in a way so as to force you to think in a different manner as you attempt to understand his teachings. That is why he uses poetic metaphor and parables so often.

Some of his teachings seem to be made so as to shock you out of compliancy so that you will come to think for yourself. Jesus actually seemed to want the disciples to look to their own inner wisdom at times, rather than to look to him for every answer.

The study of Christ’s teachings can sometimes be like reading a coded message. Understanding the historical context of the scriptures can be helpful in this decoding process. In some cases, a teaching of Jesus may have a literal interpretation that applies only to his own time period but it also has a symbolic interpretation that is universal to all time periods.

For example, Christ’s teachings on divorce made sense as a literal teaching in his time period but only can have a metaphorical meaning in ours. What Christ taught is that a man should only divorce his wife if she has been sexually unfaithful to him. In the time of the historical Jesus, a woman’s livelihood and social status completely depended upon her status of marriage. So a wife would have been unable or unlikely to initiate a divorce, it would be up to the husband. And if he did so, it would ruin the life of his wife. So this meant that as long as a woman remained sexually faithful to her husband, it would be an act of cruel immorality for him to divorce her. However, in the two millennia that has followed the historical time of Jesus, the state of marriage has changed. Now there are many legitimate reasons for divorce. Of course, entering into a marriage should be taken seriously, and when reasonably possible, divorce should be avoided. But most modern Christians accept that, depending upon the circumstances, a divorce may be a moral choice and for the best. But Christ’s teaching on divorce may still have a metaphorical meaning, even in modern times. Christ uses marriage as a metaphor for the relationship of a church with Christ. The church is the bride and Christ is the bridegroom. The church is the wife and Christ is the husband. Thereby, so long as a church remains faithful to Christ’s teachings, that church shall be empowered by the Holy Spirit. But if a church abandons Christ’s teachings and accepts Luciferian (evil) doctrine, then Christ will divorce the unfaithful church and it will no longer be empowered by the Holy Spirit. So this teaching on divorce in the Bible can only be understood if you understand both Biblical history and metaphorical symbolism, and this is true for scriptural interpretation in general.

The teachings of Christ have a universal authority that is not shared with the teachings found elsewhere in the Bible. In my personal study of the Gospels I have concluded that every teaching of Christ has either a literal meaning or a metaphorical meaning which in either case can still be applied to our time period. But I have not found this to be the case for all teachings in the Bible. For example, some Christians are adamant about applying the teachings of the apostle Paul in a literal way to the modern world. Of course, many of Paul’s teachings can be reasonably applied to the life of contemporary Christians. But much of what he taught really just tells the story of the foundation of the early Church. Paul knew that he was going to be eventually put to death by the Roman authorities. He also knew that many of the people he was converting would also be put to death because they had converted. So there is a type of fanaticism in his teachings that might not apply to the life of a contemporary Christian. So it is legitimate to reject certain teachings of Paul, or other Biblical personages, as not being universal to all time periods.

Any of the teachings in the Bible can be dismissed by you if you feel that they don’t apply to your life, and you can do so without feeling that you are rejecting God.

The Christian Bible is not God. It is a book. Actually it is a library of books that have been complied and bound together into a single volume. These books were all written by men who were inspired by God. By reading such writings, you may yourself feel inspired. Your valid awareness of God is known to you through your feelings of spiritual love. Any teaching or writing in the Bible that does not speak to your personal feeling of spiritual love can be legitimately ignored by you. The Bible is a tool that can help you to attune your heart and mind to the living Holy Spirit. The Bible tells stories that took place long ago. Your relationship with the Holy Spirit is taking place in the present time. Any interpretation of scripture that doesn’t empower you is of no value to you. The only valid interpretations of scripture are those which empower you by making you aware of your present time relationship with the Holy Spirit.

THE ORGANIZATION OF SPIRITUAL FELLOWSHIPS

For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. – Matthew 18:20 KJV

A spiritual fellowship may consist of as little as two or three persons. Such a group may meet to study spiritual writings or to pray and meditate. The advantage of such a small group is that it is personal. The members may use this as a pleasant social experience that enhances their spirituality. The only rules that such a group would abide by would be those agreed upon by all of its members.

However, a spiritual fellowship may also consist of thousands of members who form a mega-Church. As a practical matter, such a church, if in the United States, would prefer to have a non-profit status, and as such, would have to follow governmental guidelines. And in large churches there tends to be more organizational rules and regulations. The larger the size of the Church, the greater is its organizational structure.

There can be advantages in either case. And one does not exclude the other. For example, a person might be a member of a large mega-Church while also participating in a smaller, exclusive prayer group.

I believe that spiritual fellowships in the seventh millennium will become more diversified than what we see today. For example, traditional Christianity is patriarchal and seems to follow in some of the ancient traditions associated with the worship of a sky-god. But many Christians seek a more nature-loving and matriarchal spirituality. The personage of Mary, Mother of God, as a resurrection of the prehistoric Earth goddess has gained popularity among some Christians, and may become even more prominent in the seventh millennium.

Also, I know of Christians who interpret the entire Bible in terms of their beliefs in extraterrestrial phenomena. Right now, there are only a few religious fellowships that acknowledge such beliefs as valid, and those which do exist are seen as cults. However, in the seventh millennium, this may change.

For those Christians who seek to develop their psychic abilities there are really very fews religious organizations which would help with that. However, this too may change. The realization that psychic development can be harmonious with Christian worship is an idea whose time has come.

There may be a Seventh Millennium Christian Church that emerges in the years that come. The churches that make up such a fellowship may become centers where Christian-based psychic training can take place. This Seventh Millennium Christian Church may be more receptive to the idea of extraterrestrial phenomena. This Seventh Millennium Christian Church may be more welcoming of the idea that Mary Christ’s Mother is the new personification of a matriarchal spiritual movement that honors the Earth goddess energy.

I do know of a network of psychic Christians who organize in a secluded manner. Without being paranoid, they do so for good reasons. First, there is a social disapproval amongst many Christians for any spiritual practice that suggests psychic development. Second, there are certain individuals in certain branches of the government who try to monitor persons who develop high levels of psychic ability. Their fear is that persons with unusually high levels of psychic powers can become threats to national security because they can know the government’s secrets through such powers. This isn’t science fiction. This is a real concern. So the psychic Christians I know tend to remain anonymous. They avoid the internet, emails and telephones when organizing. They organize through personal contacts and ordinary postal mail. This way they can stay under the radar, which is a good idea. They aren’t terrorists or criminals, but for those who develop high levels of psychic ability, discretion is wise.

At the present time it makes sense that spiritual fellowships for psychic Christians be made up of smaller, secluded groups. As little as two or three people can make up such a group. Once the founders of this small group of psychic Christians develop a useful level of psychic ability, they may bring in others and mentor them in their psychic training. Over time, such groups may grow to such a point that it makes sense for them to become public. Eventually, in the future, there may be mega-Churches that consist of thousands of psychic Christians. Such mega-Churches would transform the world for the better.

Developing psychic ability can be transformational. There are many stories I could relate to you. The first one that comes to mind is of a woman known to me as Deborah. It’s not her real name, because of her need to remain anonymous, this was the only name she gave me. It was given to her by her psychic colleagues. They named her after a prophetess in the Bible.

Her psychic powers are amazing.

However, before she developed her psychic abilities, her life was rather sad. At a young age she clearly demonstrated a high level of intelligence. But when she became a teenager, she started to talk to her school teachers of having dreams that came true. At first they thought that she was just a bit eccentric. Then she began to have clear intuitive insights in which she knew the secret thoughts of her fellow students, as well as those of her teachers. This offended people, so one of her teachers labeled her as mentally ill.

The psychiatrists that she was turned over to were abusive. Deborah is a black woman. Some of the psychiatrists, who had authority over her in her youth, were white racists. They belittled and drugged her. This psychiatric abuse went on for years. Her struggles with them, along with the fact of being socially mislabeled as mentally ill, eventually drove her into homelessness.

Then one day she met a Christian psychic named James. He convinced her that she wasn’t mentally ill, that she was instead profoundly psychic. She began training with him and other psychic Christians. She got off of the psych-drugs and off of the streets. She put her life back together. She eventually became a psychic consultant to a group of wealthy business persons. Now she is prosperous, lives in a nice home and is part of a secluded community of psychic practitioners.

She told me that she feels like she escaped hell and has entered Heaven. That’s what psychic training did for her. So she was happy to help me create the final revised edition of this handbook for developing psychic abilities.

psyche: The mind and spirit.

psychic: An ability (or a person) that utilizes mental focus and spiritual awareness to acquire information or to influence change in the world.

gifts of the spirit: From 1 Corinthians 12 of the Holy Bible, this refers to spiritual gifts, given to believers, by the Holy Spirit; gifts such as wisdom, knowledge, healing, the ability to inspire others and the power to perform miracles.

psychic practitioner: Someone who has developed his or her psychic powers and uses them on a regular basis.

psychic threshold: This is the barrier that prevents you from accepting and using your natural inborn psychic abilities. The psychic threshold is something you must pass through in order to become a psychic practitioner. Passing through this threshold is the point in psychic training where the student is able to awaken psychic abilities so that they remain persistently present and useful.

The three major influences upon this book are remote viewing, Christianity and Reiki healing:

Remote viewing (RV) is a structured system of psychic perception developed by the U.S. government during the Cold War. For a period of years, I was in communication with some Christians who practiced remote viewing during the Cold War as well as some who were trained in remote viewing after the government ended its RV program. These Christians who studied remote viewing came to realize that they could make use of some of the techniques and concepts found in remote viewing to develop a new system for psychic development. With continual experimentation, this system evolved over time, and this book is the final outcome of that process.

This book doesn’t teach remote viewing. RV is a highly effective system for an expanded perception of reality. But it is also a highly technical system that can take many months to master.

The system of psychic development, described in this book, is much easier and faster than RV. But you should know that certain remote viewing principles did inform the system of psychic development that this book explains.

This book is not a book on occultism, mysticism or New Age philosophy.

Christianity – This is a system that was originally designed by Christians for Christians. However, this system of psychic training has evolved over the years, so you don’t have to be a member of a Christian church to learn from this system as it now exists. But you do have to at least be open to certain principles of Christian spirituality. This is not a book that teaches you the practice of the religion of Christianity. What it does teach is how to open yourself to the Holy Spirit, which is the active and invisible force that comes from our Creator. This connection with the Holy Spirit can help you in achieving your goals in life.

In the Bible, there are a number of passages which refer to miraculous healing taking place through a laying on of hands. For example, in Acts 28:8 the apostle Paul heals a man named Publius by praying and laying his hands on him.

Reiki healing is a system of healing developed in Japan which also heals through a laying on of hands. Not all Reiki healers are Christians, but some are. The word “Reiki” is a Japanese word that is often translated as “universal life force”, but it can be translated in other ways. English speaking persons usually pronounce Reiki as “ray-key” but Japanese speaking persons usually pronounced it somewhat differently. It is made up of two words, “rei” and “ki”. I don’t speak Japanese, but a Japanese speaking Christian once told me that the word “rei” can be translated as Holy, and that the word “ki” can be translated as Spirit. So the word Reiki could be translated as Holy Spirit. And this is how the Christian Reiki healers who influenced this book translated the word Reiki. So for them, Reiki healing is really Holy Spirit healing.

If I’m not a Christian, why would I want to study this book?

Even if you’re not a Christian, you may find that this system of psychic development is useful to you; nevertheless, as author of this book, I do understand why some people don’t care for Christianity. If you are such a person, you may have had bad experiences with certain Christians. Although I am a Christian, I do know that some Christians can be overbearing or judgmental. You may have disagreements with Christians who are homophobic. You may have been raised in a Christian family that was dysfunctional. You may have been a member of a Christian Church that rejected you or with which you disagreed. You may see conservative Christianity as a political movement to which you are opposed. You may believe in a religion or philosophy other than Christianity. Or you may personally reject all organized philosophy and simply choose to believe in your own individualized view of things.

What you have to understand is that this is not a book on religion; it is a book that teaches psychic ability as a spiritual practice.

Consider this:
You can study yoga without being a Hindu. You can study mindfulness without being a Buddhist. You can study Tai Chi without being a Taoist. And therefore you can learn to develop your gifts of the spirit without being a religious Christian.

However, in the study of yoga you would use some Hindu terms and concepts. In this spiritual system, described in this book, you will find some Christian terms and aspects of Christian spirituality. But you don’t have to identify yourself as a religious Christian in order to use this system.

Isn’t any Psychic practice a part of the New Age Movement?

The system of psychic development described in this book is different than that found in Wiccan practice, occultism, mysticism or New Age channelling. There are no practices in this book that actually conflict with traditional Christian theology. You won’t be asked to worship false gods or graven images. You won’t be encouraged to channel strange spiritual entities.

Are the practices in this book acceptable for all Christians?

Most Christians would have no problems with this system. Everything in this book is in agreement with basic Christian beliefs and the teachings of Jesus as found in the Bible. But the specific belief systems of Christian churches do differ. And some Christians do interpret the Bible in narrow-minded and dogmatic ways. So in all honesty, some persons who identify themselves as Christians might not find this book acceptable.

How does this system work?

There is a Creator who is the wellspring of all existence. From this Creator comes the active will and invisible force we call the Holy Spirit. Without the Holy Spirit, your human abilities are sadly limited, but when you attune yourself to the Holy Spirit, your abilities are greatly expanded. And when you are fully opened to the Holy Spirit, miracles become possible. And that’s what it means to develop your gifts of the spirit, which are your divinely endowed psychic abilities.

But the Holy Spirit need not be thought of in religious terms. Reiki energy can be described as the universal life force.

Consider this:
The laws of nature are universal. The law of gravity applies everywhere on Earth and in outer space, and this is true of all time periods: past, present and future. The universal application of the laws of nature implies a single source of creation for all of nature. When your mind and consciousness is out of harmony with this source of all creation, you are disempowered because the universal life force ceases to be available to you. But you become empowered by regaining a harmony with this source of all creation because you then become opened to this universal life force.

So this system of psychic training consist of three aspects, all of which are intended to assist you in opening to the universal life force and developing psychic power.

These three aspects are:

1) Teachings about the functions of the psychic mind.

2) Teachings intended to assist you with making an attitude adjustment, conducive to psychic ability.

Such teachings consist of statements designed to confront wrong minded ideas, common to contemporary society, which place you intellectually out of harmony with the universal life force.

The validity of any teaching in this book may be questioned by you. Nobody expects you to mindlessly accept everything you read here, but in reading certain teachings, your thinking will be challenged.

So the purpose of some of the writings in this book are to get you to question some of your ingrained attitudes so that you can form a new way of thinking that allows for psychic ability. You don’t have to agree with everything you read in this book, but you are going to have to learn to think outside of the box.

3) Training practices that you perform on a regular basis which will assist you in developing psychic powers.

Some of these training practices remove mental blocks to psychic power and some of them exercise mental abilities necessary to psychic power.

So this system of psychic ability consists of reading the lessons, in a sequential fashion, and performing the training practices on a regular basis.

The study of lessons and the training practices are structured to lead you up to a point where you work your way through the psychic threshold. There actually may be a number of psychic thresholds which you past through.

Once your psychic abilities emerge, how you access them and utilize them will depend upon your individual talents. And at some point you may find that you don’t need the structure of training anymore.

How difficult is it to develop psychic abilities?

This really depends upon the individual. Everyone has differing potentials for psychic power and differing forms of latent psychic ability.

Everyone has latent psychic powers which are unused. Undoubtably this is true for you as well. You were born with psychic powers. But you were raised in a culture that taught you to suppress your natural psychic abilities. By the time you were an adult, you probably had completely lost touch with some or all of these natural psychic abilities. This has become the norm in our society.

So this is really a matter of reclaiming powers that have always been within you. The challenge that you’ll face is in overcoming some of your social conditioning. This may or may not be difficult for you.

Some people put in very little work in developing their psychic powers, and yet in doing so they achieve a useful level of psychic ability. For many people, all they want to do is to enhance their intuitive abilities to such a degree that it helps them to achieve their goals in life. These are usually things like health, prosperity, romantic love, family, safety and happiness.

You probably had some goal in mind when you acquired this book. Perhaps you were just interested in seeing what it would be like to develop your psychic powers.

This book describes a course in psychic training. Every lesson exposes you to certain concepts that help in developing your psychic powers. Within each of these lessons you are given a description of a practical training drill. Some of these training drills are intended to be done only once, and some are intended to be repeated on a regular basis until your psychic abilities more fully emerge.

Other people have done this course before you, and in all honesty, not everyone makes it through all of these lessons. But most people do experience some degree of psychic awakening even if they only make it part way through the course.

But just reading the book will not awaken your psychic powers. You have to do the training drills if you expect to develop psychic ability. And this does require some effort.

I have known some students of this course who have developed profound and transformational levels of psychic ability. But this usually did require consistent work and dedication. The fastest time that anyone has successfully completed all of these lessons was about forty days. And usually it takes longer.

But there are some students that have spent only a week or so in study, never making it through all of the lessons, and yet have developed a useful degree of psychic awakening.

You are really the one who is in control. How far you go and the level of psychic power you attain is up to you.

How do I begin my psychic training?

I would be best if you studied this system with another open-minded and good-hearted person. It’s ideal if you have a study partner; so your first step might be to find someone else to study with.

But if you choose to study alone, you can start your training right away. The lessons in the earlier sections of this book can be done by one person working alone. Eventually you will come across some lessons that do require a study partner if you are to do the training drills. Yet you don’t have to do these later training drills in order to get the benefits from this system of training. So even studying by yourself, you can develop some level of psychic ability.

There are thirty lessons in this book, and some extra material in the Appendix. Even if you don’t make it through all of the lessons, you may awaken some helpful degree of psychic awareness. You may find that you get what you want from this book even if you only make it through the beginning lessons. You’ll have to decide how far you’ll go. This book is designed to be studied in a sequential fashion. You’ll get better results if you don’t jump around by skipping lessons and trying to do the later ones out of sequence. So start with the first lesson.